Writers Rumble at Helium
According to Betsy Schiffma, blogger at Epicenter, Wired Magazine’s business blog, writers at Helium.com are unhappy because the service is considering withholding payment from authors who are no longer active, even if their content is producing profit - that ‘long-tail’ profit. According to Wired, Helium’s payment model is based on the quality ranking by other users; the traffic generated by the story; and how much money advertisers are willing to pay for the article. Wired then quotes a Helium site administrator saying We feel that this long tail of earnings might be better utilized if we shared it with our active members . . .
In other words, Helium is trying to, or at least thinking about trying to force writers to also be users, an unworkable apples and oranges proposition in my opinion.
A couple of things should be obvious by now:
- Writers deserve to be paid for their work and are entitled to long tail profits as long as those exist.
- Depending on user rankings for anything reliable is hopeless - it can be fun, even helpful, but it’s not a reliable metric.
Which says nothing about Helium changing the agreement they originally had with their writers. That may be legal, but it’s far from fair.
The take away for freelance writers? Be sure you understand the contracts you sign. If there’s a weasel clause which allows the company to change the terms, seriously consider moving on. If you choose to agree, be willing to let it all go down the road.
Write well and often,
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Tags: authors, freelance-writers, helium revolt, helium.com, home-business, wired magazine, work-at-home, writingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Business of Freelance Writing
8 opinions for Writers Rumble at Helium
Trisha
Apr 15, 2008 at 9:39 am
Wow, that’s bogus! I’m really glad I never signed up for that website. It always seemed shady to me, and I’m worth a lot more.
Kristen King
Apr 15, 2008 at 9:54 am
I’m no lawyer, but I’m not sure that IS legal. They can change new agreements they enter into, but they can’t go back on an agreement they already made. At least, I don’t think they can. At any rate, they shouldn’t be able to!
John Hewitt
Apr 15, 2008 at 10:58 am
I’ve always opposed the Helium model, because I always considered them to be a site that exploited writers. The fact that they would change existing agreements in order to further manipulate and short change their writers is unfortunate but unsurprising.
Anne Wayman
Apr 15, 2008 at 11:05 am
I agree, John… I don’t like Associated Content for many of the same reasons.
Debbi
Apr 15, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I am a lawyer and I haven’t practiced law for quite a while, so PLEASE DON’T TAKE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING FOR LEGAL ADVICE OR RELY ON IT AS SUCH, but any contract that allows one party to unilaterally change the terms without the other party’s consent doesn’t sound like any kind of contract at all to me.
A contract is supposed to be an exchange of legally binding promises. If one party can simply change their promises at will, they’re no longer legally bound to the promises they made. Even if a provision like that were written into the contract, I’d question whether it’s enforceable, given that it renders the promises Helium gave meaningless. Actually, a contract term that lets them change other provisions unilaterally could be considered to render their promises “illusory,” which as I recall would nullify the entire agreement, since they never really promised anything to begin with.
Now, I did mention that this shouldn’t be relied on as legal advice, right? :)
Anne Wayman
Apr 16, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Debbie, I”m sure you’re right, but one of the problems is getting enough people to join in a suit. It’s probably too expensive for one person to handle… unfortunately, writers tend to be anti or at least suspicious of unions… NWU, Author’s Guild, etc. who could make a difference… so unless someone leads a class action… at least that’s been my experience in roughly similar situations.
Debbi
Apr 16, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Oh, yeah. Lawsuits over unpaid freelance work are usually not worth one writer’s effort and expense. And then there’s the problem of figuring out who exactly is behind Helium (who to sue) and what court would have jurisdiction over them.
And even if you get a judgment after all that, if they don’t pay, well, good luck trying to enforce it.
Anne Wayman
Apr 17, 2008 at 7:23 am
which, imo, makes a case for NWU.org, etc.
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